The Court of Appeal has upheld prison sentences imposed on two men over a pursuit on the N24 between Pallasgreen and Dromkeen which ended in a fatal collision with motorcyclists.
Michael Stanners received concurrent six-and-a-half-year sentences after a jury convicted him of two counts of endangerment. Daniel Philips was sentenced to concurrent terms of five years and nine months after pleading guilty to two counts of dangerous driving causing death or serious bodily harm. Both were also disqualified from driving for ten years.
The offences occurred on January 4, 2020. Philips was driving a Hyundai van towards Limerick with Marcella Ryan and a five-year-old child as passengers. Stanners was driving a Toyota Avensis carrying three other men.
The sentencing evidence established that the vehicles travelled at about 100km/h. Ryan said the Toyota pulled alongside the van and a passenger leaned out with a yellow bat, struck the van and shouted a death threat. CCTV later showed both vehicles travelling on the wrong side of the road through Dromkeen at speed.
The Hyundai subsequently struck motorcyclists Maurice Fehilly and Thomas Traynor. Mr Fehilly died almost immediately. Mr Traynor suffered severe injuries to his right foot and underwent multiple operations before a below-knee amputation. He later developed aggressive bladder cancer and died in April 2022.
Stanners argued that his sentence was excessive and that part should have been suspended. The Court of Appeal rejected this, describing the endangerment as being at the highest level of culpability and finding a seven-year headline sentence justified.
Philips argued that greater weight should have been given to the fact that his dangerous driving began as a panicked response to the attack and pursuit. The court accepted that this reduced his culpability to some extent, but only modestly because his reaction obviously placed other road users at risk.
It also upheld the reduction from a seven-year headline sentence for Philips, finding the allowance for his late guilty plea, remorse, cooperation and medical circumstances fell within the sentencing judge's discretion. Both appeals were dismissed.